- All
- Art Centres
- Artist Background
- Artist Interviews
- Collecting Art
- Education
- Exhibit Walk Through
- Featured Works
- Industry Events
- Interior Design
- Key Concepts
- Ochre Painting
- Rock Art
Highlights from our 2016 Indigenous Art Exhibition Program
It’s been a really great year for our exhibition program, probably one of the most eclectic years we’ve ever had. We’ve exhibited a wide range of artists from all around Australia. The program has included artists from indigenous owned and run art centres, as well as independent artists and famous artists from the past. I’d…
Aboriginal Art Leads A Global Showcase of First Nation Art
Museum Quai Branly in Paris is one of those contemporary museums with a real sense of purpose. The building is designed to get you in the zone for discovering its contents. It houses a collection of cultural works of First Nations people, or Indigenous people from all around the world. It’s really an ethnographic museum. The museum gives a snapshot of the whole non-Western tradition…
Science Uses Ochre To Map Ancient Aboriginal Trading Routes
Scientists are looking at the organic makeup of ochre pigments to discover more about the trading routes used by traditional indigenous communities in Australia. The South Australian Museum is using modern spectrometer technology to analyse the types of ochres found on old, possibly pre-contact artefacts. This helps them map the trade routes used by traditional…
Seton College Aboriginal Culture Program
By: David Wroth, Japingka Gallery, 2016 Jade Dolman is a Whadjuk, Ballardong Bibulmun artist. In this interview she talks about a program exploring Indigenous culture at Seton Catholic College in Perth, Western Australia. (NB This interview relates to events in 2016. You can read an update on Jade’s work in Stories of Country Stories of…
Seton College Visual Arts Project
By: David Wroth, Japingka Gallery, 2016 Sophie Jaques is a Visual Arts teacher at Seton Catholic College in Perth. In 2016 she initiated a project for the Year 7 class. Aboriginal art and culture were explored across whole school year in several subjects. Here she describes how the project came about and how it worked.…
Rosella Namok & Sisters from the Tropical North
We are excited to have an exhibition of works from the Lockhart River Indigenous painters. This group of young women started painting when they were still in their teens. Their work feels very contemporary. It’s innovative and colourful. You walk into the room and these paintings feel so alive. There’s an extrovert quality in the…
Elsie Napanangka Granites – Shimmering Maps of An Ancient Land
We have a powerful new exhibition of paintings by senior artist Elsie Napanangka Granites. They are about the women’s ceremonial site and it’s impossible not to be moved by them. The series is called Mina Mina Jukurrpa, the women’s Dreaming stories. It’s associated with a very big salt lake in the central Tanami Desert. There…
Elsie Napanangka Granites – Art, Sorry Business & The Bulldogs
By: David Wroth, Japingka Gallery, 2016 Tracking down Elsie Napanangka Granites for a chat can be a challenge. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Firstly Elsie’s been away from Alice Springs attending family funerals back in her community. The second reason is that Elsie, like many artists, prefers doing her art rather than talking…
Japingka Takes On A New Name
Today is a big day for us at Japingka. We’ve officially changed our name to Japingka Aboriginal Art. Previously we went under the name Japingka Gallery. As you may know, Aboriginal art has been our primary focus for over thirty years. Nothing has changed in our passion and commitment. What has changed is that the art industry…
Camel Camp and Beyond: Utopia Artists of the Eastern Desert
Susan Pitjara Hunter | Awely – Body Paint 180 x 180 cm Jap 013016 Camel Camp is one of about twenty outstation camps on the Utopia Homelands. These small settlements have been the basis of family life for the Alywarr and Anmatyerr people who first gained freehold rights to the Utopia lands in 1978. The…
Art & Life at Camel Camp on Utopia Homelands
Sonja Chalmers is the co-ordinator of an independent arts centre at Camel Camp, Utopia. Here she talks about her work with the artists. Can you tell us a bit about Camel Camp? Camel Camp is on Utopia, an Aboriginal freehold property about 250 kilometers northeast of Alice Springs. Camel Camp is one of around 20…
Josie Petrick Kemarre on Witch Doctors, Family & Art
Josie (Josepha) Petrick Kemarre is an Anmatyerre-speaking artist from Central Australia. She divides her time between her family’s traditional land and the town of Alice Springs. In this interview, she talks about seeing a witch doctor, her painting and her family. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Santa Teresa and left when…
George Tuckerbox: Rare Maps of A Lost Desert Land
Artist George Tuckerbox has seen the ancient and the ultra modern. He can remember first contact with white people. He’s been a stockman and drover, worked with bullock teams, been a ceremonial singer and performer and an exhibiting artist. He has been through droughts and driving cyclonic rains. He’s performed traditional dance in Tokyo. In a full life with many highlights it is…
NATSIAA 2016 – Exciting Times for Indigenous Art in Darwin
Ian Plunkett looks back at the NATSIAA 2016 Art Awards and associated Aboriginal art events in Darwin. I’m just back from Darwin Art Fair and it was great. It was one of the best Art Fairs for quite a few years.The Telstra Art Awards, or NATSIAA, were of a particularly high standard this year. They seem to…
In Conversation With Maria Josette Orsto
Maria Josette Orsto is an artist from the Tiwi Islands. These islands are part of the Northern Territory in Australia. They are 80 km to the north of Darwin, where the Arafura Sea joins the Timor Sea. In this conversation, Maria talks about her art and life on the Tiwi Islands. Can you tell me…
Indigenous Culture In Schools: Sarrita King’s Perspective
By: David Wroth, Japingka Gallery, 2016 Sarrita King has paintings in major Australian and international art collections. In this article she discusses how she would like to see Aboriginal art explored in schools. She has a message for teachers. What did you see being taught about Australian indigenous culture at school? I feel like I was informed but I…
The Wangkatjungka Remote School Mentors Project – Part 1
The Principal’s Story – Keith Spencer In 2009 a project at Wangkatjungka Remote Community School brought the teenagers and elders together. The project boosted school attendance to unheard of levels as well as creating an exciting event at Japingka Gallery. Here is the story of that project told by Keith Spencer, Principal of Wangkatjungka Remote School at that time. Quick…
The Wangkatjungka Remote School Mentors Project – Part 2
The Project Facilitator’s Story – David Wroth In 2009 a project at Wangkatjungka Remote Community School brought the teenagers and elders together. The project boosted school attendance to unheard of levels as well as creating an exciting event at Japingka Gallery. Here is the story of that project told by David Wroth of Japingka Aboriginal…
The Wangkatjungka Remote School Mentors Project – Part 3
The Gallery Director’s Story – Ian Plunkett In 2009 a project at Wangkatjungka Remote Community School brought the teenagers and elders together. The project boosted school attendance to unheard of levels as well as creating an exciting event at Japingka Gallery. Here is the story of that project told by Ian Plunkett. Quick links: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The…
Tiwi Design Art Centre: A Peaceful Place For Art
By: David Wroth, Japingka Gallery, 2016 Dianne is Studio Co-ordinator for Tiwi Design Art Centre on Bathurst in the Tiwi Islands. In this article she talks about the diversity of her role. She reflects on cultural change within the Arts Centre, the No Humbug rule, wish lists, Work for the Dole and sister girls. Where is the Tiwi…
The Art & Influence of Bella Kelly
Annette Davis, from the City of Albany’s Vancouver Arts Centre is the curator of the Bella Kelly Retrospective, a project supported by the Departments of Culture and the Arts and Regional Development, Royalties for Regions and Country Arts WA. In this interview Annette talks about the artist and her place in history. She discusses the proposal that Bella Kelly…
Maria Josette Orsto and Art From the Tiwi Islands
We’ve just put up some impressive ochre paintings by Maria Josette Orsto. She’s using some of the ceremonial designs from Tiwi Islands in her work. This artist has a strong family tradition of painting and design. Maria has worked as an artist from a young age, helping out her father Declan Apuatimi with his painting and carving. These impressive…
Sarrita King: Fire And What It Is To Be Human
In this interview, Sarrita King talks about the Elements series and the Fire story, as well as the influences of her father William King Jungala and sister Tarisse King. I’ll tell you a story. It brings a smile to my face because it’s so much about my Dad. He would always invite people in by telling a…
Jade Dolman’s Passion For Aboriginal Art Education
Boorloo/Perth artist Jade Dolman was barely out of high school when she realised her passion for First Nations art education. Through her consultancy J.D. Penangke she has run school workshops to get children excited about Aboriginal art and culture. Now Jade is working full time in large scale mural projects. Here she talks about her…
Sarrita & Tarisse King – Reflecting On Gurindji and Wave Hill
Our next exhibition at Japingka Gallery features new works by Sarrita King and Tarisse King, opening 8th April 2016 in Fremantle. This year both Tarisse and Sarrita are thinking about their father William King Jungala, and about his country around Wave Hill. This place is about 600 kilometres south of Darwin and it is the…
Ana Nail – Curriculum, Aboriginal Art and Intent
Geographe Primary School Visual Arts teacher Ana Nail has a passion for helping her students understand Aboriginal art. Her work in this area has been recognised by a WA Premier’s Primary Teacher of the Year award. Ana contributes to both National and State arts curriculum development. In this interview Ana reflects on what is changing…
How I Curate An Aboriginal Art Exhibition at Japingka
I’ve been curating Aboriginal art at Japingka for thirty-five years, and in that time, I’ve never had to explain to anyone what I’m doing. A friend dropped by the other day and commented on how very different the room feels with some new paintings up. Our summer exhibition has been hanging for a couple of…
Remarkable Contemporary Aboriginal Fine Dot Painting
In this article Japingka’s Ian Plunkett discusses the work of five contemporary fine dot artists. When it comes to fine dot painting, I definitely have my own favourites. These are people who I admire and whose technique is taking this exciting style of art in a slightly different direction. Jorna Newberry Jorna is the most…
Kimberley Ochre Painters – The Old And New
Our next exhibition is an overview of three generations of Kimberley ochre painters. The collection contains some very traditional and well-known artists including Rover Thomas, Jack Britten, Hector Jandany, Henry Wambini and Queenie McKenzie. Many of these artists have passed away now and they are now regarded as the most significant names of the East…
Turbo Brown – From Homeless To Art World Rising Star
We have a new exhibition opening this month in Gallery 2 featuring the works of Turbo Brown. Turbo has made a bit of a name for himself painting these very direct images of birds and animals from the Australian bush. Born in 1967, Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown is a Latje Latje man who grew up in…
Petrina Bedford and Her Grandfather Jack Dale Mengenen
Petrina Bedford is a third generation contemporary indigenous artist. Her grandfathers were the famous painters Jack Dale Mengenen on her mother’s side and Paddy Bedford on her father’s side. Her mother is the Ngarinyin artist Edna Dale. Encouraged by Jack Dale, Petrina painted from a very young age. In this interview she talks about this…
What My Father Jack Dale Taught Me
In this interview, Kimberley artist Edna Dale talks about her famous father, the artist Jack Dale Mengenen. About Jack Dale, Jack was born with European/Indigenous parentage at a time when this was unacceptable within both cultures. Jack’s mother hid him from the welfare workers who routinely removed mixed-race children from their families. Jack grew up…
Is Process More Important Than Outcome in Aboriginal Art?
In October an exhibition of Aboriginal art work featuring several hundred paintings opened in Bucharest in Romania. Japingka took a collection of work to that exhibition. For many in the European audience it was their first opportunity to see Aboriginal art and they asked some interesting questions. In this article David Wroth discusses the question…
Thoughts From An Opening Night – Ceremonial Songs & Art
Recently I was speaking at the opening of the exhibition by Deborah Young Nakamarra and Katherine Marshall Nakamarra. Half way through the talk I looked around at the whole exhibition and suddenly saw it in a new light. I thought I might tell you about that moment. Artists sometimes tell us the story behind their…
Who Started The Modern Desert Aboriginal Art Movement?
In this article David Wroth discusses the question about who started the modern Desert Aboriginal Art movement – Aboriginal or white Australians? This question was asked at an exhibition of Aboriginal Art in Bucharest, Romania earlier this year. Who Started The Modern Desert Aboriginal Art Movement? I said it was like an accident. In a sense, it was the…
Seeing Aboriginal Art For The First Time Thirty Years On
It is thirty years since I stood in a Perth gallery surrounded by people seeing Aboriginal art for the first time. It was a strange feeling then, to be having that experience again three decades later. This time it was in a Romanian gallery just a few weeks ago. I was there with a major exhibition…
New Survey Exhibition of Aboriginal Art Opens in Bucharest
A new Aboriginal art exhibition “The Dreaming” opened in Bucharest, Romania in October 2015, featuring paintings by over 50 Aboriginal artists and 240 paintings. Major artists exhibiting include Emily Kngwarreye, Tommy Watson, Clifford Possum, Dorothy Napangardi, Walangkura Napanangka, Judy Watson Napangardi, and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa. The artworks include regional styles across Australia, covering the Central and…
The Influence of Batik in Art of Jorna Newberry
This painting is by an artist called Jorna Newberry. Her traditional country is around the tri-state border between Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. These are some of the new paintings that Jorna’s getting ready for an exhibition, and this one is about burning off. We’re looking at a canvas that is two…
Aboriginal Art Exhibition Plants Seeds Of Regeneration In Romania
Aboriginal art event, Romania In October an exhibition of Aboriginal art work featuring several hundred paintings will open in Bucharest in Romania. It is the brainchild of an entrepreneurial executive in Romania who come out to Australia and was entranced by the Aboriginal art. He saw a deep connection between what has happened in Australia and the scenario in his…
A New Generation Share Sacred Women’s Stories
Japingka’s Gallery one is filled with paintings from an amazing family in the Western Desert. The artists are Katherine Marshall Nakamarra & Debra Young Nakamarra. They are the daughters of the equally famous, the late Walangkura Napanangka and these paintings just sing off the wall. They’re very dynamic and they have great energy. The daughters are carrying…